SIGHT AND EMBODIMENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES
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SIGHT AND EMBODIMENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES Suzannah Biernoff
Suzannah Biernoff 2002 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-42722-2 ISBN 978-0-230-50835-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230508354 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Biernoff, Suzannah. Sight and embodiment in the Middle Ages / Suzannah Biernoff. p. cm. (New Middle Ages) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 333 96120 X 1. Vision History To 1500. 2. Body, Human (Philosophy) History To 1500. 3. Vision Religious aspects Christianity History of doctrines Middle Ages, 600 1500. 4. Body, Human Religious aspects Christianity History of doctrines Middle Ages, 600 1500. I. Title. II. New Middle Ages (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm)) BD214.B54 2002 152.14 09 02 dc21 2001056045 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
For David
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CONTENTS List of Figures ix Acknowledgements x Introduction: Medieval Vision in Perspective 1 PART I CARNAL VISION 1. Flesh 17 Disordered Bodies 18 Medieval Dualism and the Denigration of the Flesh 23 Body and Flesh in the Augustinian Tradition 26 St Augustine s Wives: Body, Flesh and the Feminine 31 The Shadow of Carnality: Bernard of Clairvaux s Allegories of the Flesh 34 Blessed Bodies 37 2. The Eye of the Flesh 41 Original Sin and the Fall of Vision 42 Ocular Erotica: Commentaries on the Sexuality of Sight 46 The Wounding Gaze 48 Ocular Chastity and the Vulnerable Eye 53 Theorising the Medieval Gaze 57 PART II PERSPECTIVA 3. Scientific Visions 63 Scientific Curiosity and the Legitimacy of Experimental Knowledge 64 The Optical Abstractions of Robert Grosseteste 67 Roger Bacon s Veridical Eye 73 Picturing Vision: Bacon s Theory of Species 74 The Perceptual Continuum 81
viii SIGHT AND EMBODIMENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES 4. The Optical Body 85 Reciprocal Vision 87 Vision and Distance 88 The Disembodied Eye 92 Seeing and Feeling 95 Perceptual Conception 99 Optical Desire and the Pleasures of Science 103 PART III REDEMPTION 5. The Custody of the Eyes 111 Polarity and Analogy 112 Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cloistered Gaze 114 Distracting the Flesh: Augustine s Theory of Attention 120 The Internal Sense as Censor 122 The Transports of Analogy 125 Sublimating Sensation and the Ocular Sublime 128 6. Ocular Communion 133 Imitatio Christi 135 Ocular Communion 140 The Man of Sorrows 144 Carnal Mediations 149 Interpenetration: the Perspective of the Flesh 157 Rethinking Ocularcentrism 162 Notes 165 Bibliography 223 Index 241
LIST OF FIGURES 1.1. World map. Psalter. London, British Library Add MS 28681 fol. 9r. By permission of the British Library. 19 1.2. Blemmyae. London, British Library MS Cotton Tiberius B.v fol. 82a. By permission of the British Library. 20 2.1. The Temptation of Adam and Eve. Cambridge, St John s College MS K26 (231) fol. 4r. By permission of the Master and Fellows of St John s College, Cambridge. 44 3.1. Diagram of the eye from Roger Bacon s Opus majus. London, British Museum MS Royal 7. F.viii fol. 54v. By permission of the British Library. 80 6.1. Elevation of the host, initial of the Corpus Christi mass. Roman missal. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Lat. 848 (detail) fol. 194r. By permission of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. 142 6.2. Imago Pietatis. Manuscript illumination, Franciscan prayer book. Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana MS Plut. 25.3, f. 387r. By permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali. 146 6.3. Miniatures from The Rothschild Canticles. New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,Yale University, MS 404. fol. 18v: (above) Christ embracing the Sponsa in the garden; Christ and the Sponsa entering the garden; (below) the Sponsa as Caritas. fol. 19r: Christ as Man of Sorrows. 147 6.4. Man of Sorrows Barmherzigkeit (detail). Wood carving. Abtei der Benedikterinnen Frauenwörth, Chiemsee. By permission Abtei Frauenwörth. 148
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS T his book has its origins in my PhD dissertation. Of the many people who shaped and supported its development, thanks are due in particular to Susan Best. As a supervisor, colleague and friend she has been both inspirational and instrumental, and my work has benefited enormously from her ideas and intellectual rigour. My speculations were nourished and tested in several reading groups: thanks especially to Nicky Teffer and Anne Douglas for many stimulating conversations. Jill Bennett, Jane Chance and Miri Rubin provided valuable feedback and contributed to the development and clarification of my ideas. I am also indebted to David Mann, to the editorial team at Palgrave, and to several anonymous readers whose critical attention to the manuscript improved it in style and substance. Jo North provided copyediting expertise; Lara Biernoff made intelligent and sensitive comments on early drafts; John Swettenham talked me through the final stages; and Hildy kept me smiling through the task of proofreading and indexing. I was assisted in my research by an Australian Postgraduate Research Award, and have received generous support, in the final stage of the project, from Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. The following individuals and organisations have kindly given permission for their photographs to be reproduced in this book: The British Library (Figs 1.1, 1.2 and 3.1); the Master and Fellows of St John s College, Cambridge (Fig. 2.1); Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Fig. 6.1); Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Firenze (Fig. 6.2); the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University (Fig. 6.3); and Abtei Frauenwörth, Chiemsee (Fig. 6.4). Finally, for her good company and innumerable kindnesses, I am deeply grateful to my mother Diana Biernoff.